Nielson: 4.9% of Entertainment Spending Goes to Games

Nielsen has issued results of a study into the entertainment spending habits of U.S. consumers and the amount spent on videogames may come as a bit of a surprise.

The company queried over 3,000 consumers in all for their check on spending habits and found that 4.9% of all household funds allocated for entertainment were spent on videogame content. Nielsen defines videogame content as new and used games, downloadable content, rentals and peripherals. Videogame content had the sixth highest percentage, trailing activities (dining out etc…), TV packages, hobbies, live events, out of home movies and cell-phone related entertainment. The latter category garnered 5.3 percent.

Among households deemed “active buyers” in the videogame category, the monthly percentage of dollars spent on videogame content almost doubled, to 9.3 percent. Entrants in this category also spent less on magazines, books and newspapers (3.4 percent to 4.2 percent of the full group), but were more likely to buy or rent movies, purchase music and—perhaps surprisingly—to participate in sports activities.

Dollars spent on sporting activities among the “active buyer” of videogames segment was 4.1 percent, versus 3.1 percent from the whole group. The  category comprised 24.0 percent of all U.S. households.

Nielson is prepping a full report on gaming, dubbed Nielsen 360° Gaming Report: United States Market, which will be released in March.